Securing AODV for MANETs using Message Digest with Secret Key

Executive Summary

Due to lack of the infrastructure, open peer-to-peer architecture, shared wireless medium, limited resource constraints and highly dynamic topology, MANETs (Mobile Adhoc NETworks) are frequently established in insecure environments, which make them more vulnerable to attacks. These attacks are initiated by sharing malicious nodes against different services of network. The binding force in these networks is routing protocol, which is a common target of malicious nodes. MANETs routing protocols are being developed without having security in mind. Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) is one such widely used routing protocol that is at present undergoing extensive research and development.